Philip B. Crosby

Quality Guru

Male

BornJun 18, 1926

Philip Bayard "Phil" Crosby, was a businessman and author who contributed to management theory and quality management practices. Crosby initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company Orlando, Florida, plant. As the quality control manager of the Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a 25 percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a 30 percent reduction in scrap costs.… Read More

'The world we are planning for today will not exist in this form tomorrow,” noted Philip Crosby, management consultant. And that, fellow Alabamians, is a fact. Revolutionary changes continue to take place in every aspect of our lives'

Timeline

Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Philip B. Crosby.

CHILDHOOD

1926Birth
Crosby was born in Wheeling, West Virginia, in 1926.
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He served in the Navy during World War II and again during the Korean War. In between, he earned a degree from the Ohio College of Podiatric Medicine. Read Less

TWENTIES

195226 Years Old
His first job in the field of quality was that of test technician in the quality department at Crosley Corporation in Richmond, Indiana beginning in 1952.

195529 Years Old
He left for a better-paying position as reliability engineer at Bendix Corporation in Mishawaka, Indiana in 1955, working on the RIM-8 Talos missile.
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He left after less than two years to become senior quality engineer at The Martin Company's new Orlando, Florida organization to develop the Pershing missile. There he developed the Zero Defects concept. Read Less

THIRTIES

196539 Years Old
He eventually rose to become department head before leaving for ITT Corporation in 1965 to become director of quality.

FIFTIES

In 1979, Crosby started the management consulting company Philip Crosby Associates, Inc.
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This consulting group provided educational courses in quality management both at their headquarters in Winter Park, Florida, and at eight foreign locations. Read Less

Also in 1979, Crosby published his first business book, Quality Is Free.
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This book would become popular at the time because of the crisis in North American quality. During the late 1970s and into the 1980s, North American manufacturers were losing market share to Japanese products largely due to the superior quality of the Japanese goods.<br /><br /> Crosby's response to the quality crisis was the principle of "doing it right the first time" (DIRFT). He also included four major principles: <br /><br /> His belief was that an organization that establishes good quality management principles will see savings returns that more than pay for the cost of the quality system: "quality is free". It is less expensive to do it right the first time than to pay for rework and repairs. Read Less